Isaiah 5

1 Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

Now I will sing to [my] beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard. [My] beloved had a vineyard on a high hill in a fertile place.

2 He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

And I made a hedge round it, and dug a trench, and planted a choice vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and dug a place for the wine-vat in it: and I waited [for it] to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns.

3 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.

And now, ye dwellers in Jerusalem, and [every] man of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?

What shall I do any more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Whereas I expected [it] to bring forth grapes, but it has brought forth thorns.

5 Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for a spoil; and I will pull down its walls, and it shall be [left] to be trodden down.

6 I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”

And I will forsake my vineyard; and it shall not be pruned, nor dug, and thorns shall come up upon it as on barren land; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Juda [his] beloved plant: I expected [it] to bring forth judgment, and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry.

8 Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!

Woe [to them] that join house to house, and add field to field, that they may take away something of their neighbor's: will ye dwell alone upon the land?

9 In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.

For these things have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts: for though many houses should be built, many and fair houses shall be desolate, and there shall be no inhabitants in them.

10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.”

For where ten yoke of oxen plough [the land] shall yield one jar-full, and he that sows six homers shall produce three measures.

11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!

Woe [to them] that rise up in the morning, and follow strong drink; who wait [at it till] evening: for the wine shall inflame them.

12 The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.

For they drink wine with harp, and psaltery, and drums, and pipes: but they regard not the works of the Lord, and consider not the works of his hands.

13 Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.

Therefore my people have been taken captive, because they know not the Lord: and there has been a multitude of dead [bodies], because of hunger and of thirst for water.

14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it. (Sheol h7585)

Therefore hell has enlarged its desire and opened its mouth without ceasing: and her glorious and great, and her rich and her pestilent men shall go down [into it]. (Sheol h7585)

15 So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;

And the mean man shall be brought low, and the great man shall be disgraced, and the lofty eyes shall be brought low.

16 but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.

But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be glorified in righteousness.

17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.

And they that were spoiled shall be fed as bulls, and lambs shall feed on the waste places of them that are taken away.

18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope,

Woe [to them] that draw sins to them as with a long rope, and iniquities as with a thong of the heifer's yoke:

19 who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”

who say, Let him speedily hasten what he will do, that we may see [it]: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know [it].

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe [to them] that call evil good, and good evil; who make darkness light, and light darkness; who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter.

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Woe [to them] that are wise in their own conceit, and knowing in their own sight.

22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;

Woe to the strong [ones] of you that drink wine, and the mighty [ones] that mingle strong drink:

23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!

who justify the ungodly for rewards, and take away the righteousness of the righteous.

24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore as stubble shall be burnt by a coal of fire, and shall be consumed by a violent flame, their root shall be as chaff, and their flower shall go up as dust: for they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and insulted the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.

Therefore the Lord of hosts was greatly angered against his people, and he reached forth his hand upon them, and smote them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses were as dung in the midst of the way: yet for all this his anger has not been turned away, but his hand is yet raised.

26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.

Therefore shall he lift up a signal to the nations that are afar, and shall hiss for them from the end of the earth; and, behold, they are coming very quickly.

27 No one shall be weary nor stumble among them; no one shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the strap of their sandals be broken,

They shall not hunger nor be weary, neither shall they slumber nor sleep; neither shall they loose their girdles from their loins, neither shall their shoe-latchets be broken.

28 whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.

Whose arrows are sharp, and their bows bent; their horses' hoofs are counted as solid rock: their chariot-wheels are as a storm.

29 Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver.

They rage as lions, and draw nigh as a lion's whelps: and he shall seize, and roar as a wild beast, and he shall cast [them] forth, and there shall be none to deliver them.

30 They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.

And he shall roar on account of them in that day, as the sound of the swelling sea; and they shall look to the land, and, behold, [there shall be] thick darkness in their perplexity.